QuestionI have been having a heated discussion with walmart about there xtra-trac tires they say that they have a S speed rating by there book but it is not on the tire the tires do not have a speed rating on them. Q are they speed rated or not. the Walmart in VA sayes they are not the Walmart in WV where I live says they are " Help"
AnswerRobert,
I really can't answer the question, and I am not sure why you would ask a question like that, but perhaps I can give you some insight into this area.
Passenger car tires: Pretty much, you can't produce one and not pass an "S" speed rating. Some winter tires are "Q" rated, but even then, there is an obvious reason for that.
Light Truck tires: Let me divide this into 2 areas: Large P metric tires and LT metrics (The tire size starts with these letters)
P metric truck tires are generally at least "S" rated and LT metric truck tires are generally at least "Q" rated - meaing that if you produce an LT metric tire, it will be able to pass a "Q" speed rating.
These ratings are not mandated by government regulations, so tires do not have to be tested, and they can even be rated without testing - however, there is some risk that someone will find out it hasn't been tested and does not pass.
Nevertheless, there are minimum standards that all tires sold in the US have to pass. The speed rating is just one of those specialized tests that helps define the pereformance level.
So in some respects, the fact that they are not rated - or they are rated low - means they are not high performance tires.
And of course it matters whether you are discussing P metric or LT metric tires.
